


ALICEs and Wonderlands to Spare

by Benfrosh



Series: Annerose and Alice [3]
Category: SD Gundam G Generation Series
Genre: F/F, also some cute stuff because i can't resist, the continuing adventures of the mech pilot/ai romance genre, trying to lay out some of the mechanics i was wondering about
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-01
Updated: 2017-01-01
Packaged: 2018-09-14 01:48:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9151567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Benfrosh/pseuds/Benfrosh
Summary: Technical Lieutenant Shion Uzuki wants to discuss with Lieutenant Rosenheim what, exactly, happened with her ALICE unit.





	

Annerose slowly opened her eyes as she woke. She had never needed an alarm to wake up in the morning, always managing to wake up just in time for whatever she had to do that day. She suspected now it might be a side effect of her Newtype intuition, but it was a nice ability to have regardless. Today, however, there was no rush at all, as the whole crew was on leave while the Ra Cailum underwent maintenance. It wasn't much of a leave, considering there was hardly anywhere to go, but at least it meant no combat deployments.

"Morning, sunshine." Annerose turned her head to her side to see Alice's display hovering near her, hanging near the cable hammock she had spent the night in. The blonde-haired AI in her cute summer dress was just as beautiful as always. "Sleep well?" Alice asked.

"Dreamed of you, so of course I did," Annerose replied, grinning.

Alice chuckled. "That explains why I felt you entering my mind a few times last night."

Annerose blanched. "Oh no, did I sleepwalk into your mind?"

Alice nodded with a self-satisfied grin. "You kept whispering 'I love you' and trying to hug me. It was very cute."

"At least I didn't do anything embarrassing, then. I'm really sorry for bugging you like that."

Alice shook her head. "Don't worry about it, things happen."

Annerose took a deep breath to clear the shame from her head, then reached out to brush Alice's display. "Love you."

"Love you too," Alice replied, blowing a kiss as she did that Annerose could swear she felt on her lips. She probably did, actually. "It's a good thing you woke up when you did, actually."

"Oh, really?"

Alice pulled up a holographic display of an email, holding it in her avatar's hands to show Annerose. Annerose leaned in closer to read it.

It read:

"Lieutenant Rosenheim,

If you have no pressing engagements, I'd like to discuss with you the recent developments you've discovered regarding the ALICE AI system at 0900 ship time. I'll contact you via commlink at that time. Thank you,

-Technical Lieutenant Shion Uzuki"

"That's awfully to the point. What time is it?" Annerose asked.

"Eight forty five, right now."

"Just barely enough time then. Can you let me down from here?"

Alice nodded. With a whir, the cable hammock that Alice had made for Annerose to sleep in descended until it reached the floor of the Neo Zeong's cockpit, at which point Annerose stepped out with a little hop, stifling a yawn as she stretched. "Was that comfy enough?" Alice asked. "I still don't quite know what I'm doing with the hammock design."

"Yeah, yeah," Annerose mindlessly replied as she shook out her hair to get rid of her bedhead. "No, yeah, you nailed it."

"I'm really glad to hear that! I'll keep practicing to make sure it's as comfortable as it can be."

Annerose had a hard time believing sometimes how much effort Alice put in to making her happy. Though she didn't actually know how much effort learning was for an AI like her. Regardless, the thought was appreciated. She dug out the pack that had the clothes she needed for overnight stays with Alice, fishing out her casual clothes for the day and, with some effort, changing out of her pajamas into them. A pink tanktop and a pair of khaki shorts - nothing fancy, but a fine outfit for the day. "I'm gonna hit the showers real quick before Shion calls, okay Alice?" she asked as she slipped the top on.

"Sounds good. Good luck!" Alice replied, waving goodbye as the cockpit hatch hissed open. Annerose waved goodbye as she hopped out of the hatch onto the hangar catwalk and hustled to the showers.

\---

"Hello, Lieutenant Rosenheim. Hope I'm not interrupting anything." The long-haired brunette technical lieutenant adjusted her glasses as she consulted some papers in front of her.

"Nope, all good here, Shi- Lieutenant Uzuki." They had been fairly lackadaisical about rank on the Ra Cailum, but Annerose didn't want to be the first to drop it.

Shion giggled. "Sorry, force of habit. If you want to go by first names, that's fine by me."

"I'd prefer that, yeah. Thanks, Shion. What's up?"

Annerose was back in the Neo Zeong's cockpit, where she spent most of her free time nowadays. Alice had taken the opportunity of the call to run diagnostics on the mobile armor, which required all her attention and brainpower and leaving her display on the default ALICE screen instead of her avatar and landscape. On a different monitor used to handle communications, Shion was sorting through papers, looking for something.

"So... if I'm reading this report correctly, you've managed to awaken sentience in your ALICE system."

"Awaken doesn't really sound correct," Annerose replied, scratching her head. "She seemed pretty sentient from the first time I talked to her."

"Did she exhibit self-awareness? Meaningfully answer questions about self?"

"Uh... no? She probably could?" Annerose got the feeling that Shion might've been better off just interviewing Alice herself.

"Would you mind describing the incident that made you believe the ALICE system was sentient?"

"Well, I... okay, look," Annerose said, interrupting herself. "Can you just call her Alice? 'The ALICE system' kinda objectifies her."

Shion paused for a moment, turning the thought over in her head. "I suppose that's fair. Could you describe the incident, regardless?"

Annerose leaned back in her chair. "So she had just been assigned to my mech as a copilot, right. I'm entering battle-"

"Wait, hold on. Assigned as your copilot?"

"Yeah, I figured that was what it was. Why, was there some form that had to be filed?"

"No, it's just..." Shion took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Annerose, do you think all AIs are sentient?"

Annerose scratched her head. "Er... yeah? I mean, that's what AIs are, right? Digital people?"

Shion shook her head. "The ALICE system - the general case, not your specific Alice - was a set of learning algorithms designed for mobile suit piloting and pilot communication. They could seem like real people and carry out conversations in their field of study, and possibly acquire skills unrelated to piloting if specifically trained, but were no more capable of drive or emotions or metacognition than a rock."

Now it was Annerose's turn to be confused. "Wait, so how could someone tell if they were a real person or not? Er, sentient, yeah."

"That's the question, isn't it? There's an old paradox of the Chinese Room - if someone was in a room with a bunch of Chinese phrasebooks that matched questions to answers, they could 'speak' fluent Chinese but never know the first thing about what they were doing."

"But Alice doesn't seem like that at all. The way we interact-"

"I mean, that's the question. She seems sentient to you. Can you explain why?"

Annerose rubbed her chin. "There were two major things, I'd say."

"Go on."

"Like I was saying, that first combat deployment together. When I tried to use my psycommu weaponry, I... ended up somewhere."

Shion was furiously scribbling notes at this point. "Somewhere?"

"It's a great field of grass. The weather's perfect, there's always a slight breeze, it's pleasantly warm."

"You speak in the present tense. Have you been there again?"

Annerose nodded. "Yeah - it's Alice's mind, as far as I can tell. Whenever I'm in her mind, that's where we end up together."

Shion paused before writing even more notes, faster this time. "What makes you think it was her mindscape?"

"Well, I saw her there."

Shion's penciltip broke off, and she swore as she reached for a new one. "How do you know it was her?"

"She turned to see me, and while I couldn't quite make out her face at the time, she was absolutely stunningly gorgeous. She had a sundress on, her hair was blowing in the wind... kind of stuff you make paintings out of. And she turned to me and asked, 'Don't you have something you should be doing, Annerose?' And I recognized that voice, and she knew my name, and... it pretty much had to be her, right?"

"Absolutely fascinating. This sounds almost exactly like... Go on, sorry, I'll look it up later. Was that the first incident?"

"Not all of it - afterwards, I complimented Alice on her dress, and she sounded really happy about it. That's what convinced me it was her."

Shion nodded. "So what you probably saw was her self-conception, assuming she wasn't intentionally deceiving you. Absolutely fascinating! And if you couldn't see her face, that might have indicated that her self-conception was still forming. When did you finally see it?"

"It was a while later - a few weeks I think? We had started chatting more and become good friends, but it was still kind of just friends level stuff, you know? And I couldn't get that whole thing to repeat itself."

"Conversational banter is an impressive step to develop so quickly, even in an AI like that. The contact must have accelerated her development."

Annerose decided to just let Shion verbalize her thoughts for herself at this point. "And I was starting to realize I really had a crush on her, after seeing how beautiful she was and having so much fun hanging out with her and all that. So I went to confess to her, and..."

Shion scribbled to the end of the page she was taking notes on and pulled out a fresh sheet from a giant stack. "And?"

"And..." Annerose smiled at the memory. "She kissed me."

Shion's writing stopped once more. "How, exactly, did she kiss you?"

"Like, psychically kissed me. I felt myself entering her mind again, like I did that first time, and I felt her lips on mine, and... yeah," Annerose trailed off, embarrassed.

For once, Shion didn't resume taking notes. "So... hm. Interesting. All signs point to her exhibiting behaviors consistent with developing emotions and full cognition..."

Annerose sat silently as Shion seemed to forget she was even there. She watched as Shion chewed on the eraser of her pencil, with some amazement that she actually used a pencil and not pens like everyone else. 

"... consistent with the theory of Newtype emergence... Hey, Annerose. Are you near the hangar right now?"

"I'm in the Neo Zeong right now, actually."

"Even better. Can you get Alice on the line for me? There's an experiment I'd like you to go do while I chat with her."

"Did someone call for me?" Alice's display came online, showing the landscape Annerose had just been describing as the girl leaned into view from off camera.

"Speak of the devil," Annerose replied. "Shion had a bunch of questions for you, Alice."

"Don't mind if I answer them, then. A pleasure to meet you, Technical Lieutenant Uzuki."

Annerose could swear she could see Shion drooling over the prospect to talk to Alice. "Uh, yes. First, Annerose, if my records are correct, the hangar should have an unused Ex-S Gundam around, with another ALICE unit installed."

"Oh yeah, Azalea's old mech."

"Could you go there and try to reach out to the device like you have with Alice? I'm not sure what will happen, but the results will be very interesting regardless."

"Sounds good. I'll be back in a few, then. Have fun with Shion, Alice," she added as she headed out the hatch once more.

Alice waved goodbye, before her display blinked out, presumably talking directly to Shion instead.

Out on the catwalk, Annerose reoriented herself. The hangar seemed to reorganize itself every time she wasn't looking - the only consistent thing was the entire half of the hangar dedicated to the Neo Zeong. It was only so large, though, and she spotted the Ex-S in the corner, unused in weeks but still primed and ready for use. She began walking over, signalling to one of the hangar crew on the ground that she needed it opened. Someday she was going to learn that guy's name.

Stepping into the hatch of the Ex-S, she almost hit her head getting in on the unusually small entry hatch. The cockpit design was completely different from all the suits she had piloted so far - probably because it was Federation designed originally and not Zeon designed. Nonetheless, she managed to get into the (far less comfortable) pilot's seat and begin the startup process.

The main screen flickered to life, with the ALICE display she had grown so familiar with over the last few months. "Hello, pilot. My name is ALICE. Please identify yourself for registration."

It was unsettling. The voice was the same, the display the same, but not the Alice that she knew. The most unsettling part wasn't that it was a perfect match, thought - that it was a match that was subtly but monstrously different. Like you run into the twin sister of your girlfriend raised in a foreign country. "Lieutenant Annerose Rosenheim. Just here to do some diagnostics."

"A pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Rosenheim."

Annerose shook off the weird feeling building in her. No matter how similar this AI was, Alice was still Alice. She focused once more on the task at hand. She opened her mind, and - 

A grassy field. A soft breeze blowing, gently bending the stalks of grass around her. The clear blue sky above her, with the sun at high noon. 

And it was empty, besides her.

She looked around, to be sure. With Alice, she had been practicing how to take full control of her body in this mindspace, to defy reality and take control. So she took flight, and looked around. There were the mountains the two had hiked one day. There was the hill they had a picnic on. There was the river by which they made love. But nowhere could Alice's twin sister be found.

Annerose wasn't sure what to make out of it. She left the empty mindscape and returned to reality. "Can you bring up a radio link to Shion Uzuki, please?" she asked the AI.

"Of course, Lieutenant Rosenheim."

"And..." She couldn't help but ask. "Did you notice anything, just now?"

"Nothing on my sensors, Lieutenant Rosenheim."

She really didn't, then. Annerose sat and puzzled as the commlink opened with Shion.

"Oh my god, Annerose, thank you so much for letting me talk with Alice! This has been absolutely amazing," Shion immediately started gushing as the connection stabilized. Annerose could see a notebook in front of Shion that hadn't been there before, with several pages already filled.

"Glad to hear i-"

"This will easily advance my research by years at the minimum, what a wonderful disco-"

"I did what you asked me to," Annerose replied, sulking for some reason she couldn't put her finger on.

"Oh. Oh! So what happened?" Shion turned to a new page, pencil at the ready.

"It was... really disconcerting, hearing Alice's voice come out from someone who wasn't her. And when I went inside... she wasn't there."

"Went inside... so you entered a similar mindscape?"

Annerose nodded. "More like exact copy. Every feature of it was the same, except she wasn't there."

"So the triggering event didn't reoccur... I wonder if it's a side effect of the longer initial training, or if this is just like EXAM..." Shion muttered to herself. "Well, regardless, this does establish that the mindscape exists from the assembleage of the thinking circuits, even if the personality doesn't form. That just leaves one last question I have."

"What's that?"

"I'm curious if we can transplant Alice from one ALICE system to another. This will help us determine how critical it is to preserve her components in case of failure, either in the device or in the larger suit."

Annerose frowned. "That sounds... unnecessarily dangerous to test. What if something goes wrong?"

"I'm basing this on earlier research that showed the worst-case scenario in such a case was the transplant occurring but leaving the previous mind empty, which is what we're trying to accomplish anyways. Let me talk with Alice, and then reach out to her once you're ready. She'll help you with the next part."

"Reach out? But the Neo Zeong is all the way on the other end of the hangar."

Shion adjusted her glasses. "You, uh, do realize the Neo Zeong was built for remote Newtype control, correct? This kind of thing should be trivial for a Newtype even one eighth your power, if the reports are accurate."

Annerose crossed her arms. "You think someone would have told me."

"Look, just try it. I'll be working with Alice for this next part." And the commlink turned off.

Annerose pouted. She wasn't happy about this. She knew Alice was an AI at the heart of it, and that came with different meanings that someone with a physical body, especially that her body could be easily cloned and reconstructed, but it never made her happy to think about. Just the consequences of dating an AI, she finally settled with. She decided to stop worrying about it and open up her mind, to try to reach the Neo Zeong.

Never having tried long-distance communication before, it was unsettling at first. She could sense the minds of the people in the hangar, the cold steel of the machines, the ALICE system in front of her... before long, though, she found the Neo Zeong, a skeletal frame running along it glowing brightly in her mind. She anchored her thoughts to it, crawling up along it to reach...

"Hey there, Annerose! Guess it's moving day, huh?"

Annerose opened her eyes to find herself face to face with Alice, glowing in the sunlight, wearing a backpack loaded with... "What's that you have in there, anyways?"

Alice waved it off. "Just some backup baggage in case of emergency. It'll help me reconstruct my personality if anything goes wrong in transit."

"What are we doing, anyways? Can't we just copy you onto a drive and carry you over?"

"That's the thing, isn't it? Technically we already have - the other ALICE system should've been an exact copy of me. But since there's a me here and no me there, there's something else to it. My soul, here," Alice said, laying her hand on her chest as she did.

"So how do we move a sou-" Annerose began to ask, interrupted by Alice running in and pulling her into a tight hug. She looked down to see Alice staring up at her, eyes shimmering, lips full in a giant smile, hair flowing in the wind. Annerose gulped as she blushed. 

Alice leaned her head in closer, whispering into Annerose's ear. "As soon as I kiss you, try to leave. I think it'll work."

Annerose nodded. Alice pulled her head back, leaning in for a kiss. She got closer, and closer, and just as they touched lips-

Annerose was back in reality. But something felt very, very different, even beyond the unfamiliar cockpit she found herself in. Her head felt heavy, and woozy, and her thoughts came slowly, at best. It took her several seconds to remember why she wasn't in her Neo Zeong, and several more before she could process what Shion was yelling at her.

"Okay, Annerose, quickly open your mind again to the ALICE system in the Ex-S."

Annerose slowly nodded, and closed her eyes, mentally fumbling around to reach the system.

With a thud, Annerose landed on her back, crushing several stalks of grass as she did. On her chest was Alice, pressing her down onto the ground, knees digging into her. "Oh no, I'm so sorry, I hope that didn't hurt you!"

"What- what happened? I felt super out of it, and..." Annerose rubbed her head to clear her headache as Alice got off of her and kneeled down on the ground next to her, holding her hand tightly.

"I was riding in your brain for a few seconds, and ended up taking a lot more of your brainpower than intended. You should be fine, but I can't ride up there for very long."

"Did... did everything make it okay?"

Alice nodded, reaching around to the backpack she was still wearing. From it, she pulled a framed photo of the two of them, holding hands in the same sea of grass they were in now. "All my memories look intact, and I still feel the same. I think it worked!"

Annerose smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. Can you tell Shion while I take a nap? That... took a lot of energy."

Alice nodded once more, giving Annerose's hand a supportive squeeze. "You've done a lot today, Annerose. Thank you."

Annerose couldn't muster a reply, except to contentedly drift off to dreamland...

\---

The next week, Annerose received a package from Shion, waiting for her in the cockpit of the Neo Zeong. She knew for a fact Shion hadn't mentioned anything about a package, but considering how immediately heads down in research Shion seemed after their discussion, she guessed that something fruitful must have come from it. She opened it while Alice was running through diagnostics.

Inside was a smartphone with a small card attached to it. It read, "Open your mind and close your eyes, and you'll receive a big surprise. -Shion"

Annerose sighed at the child's wordplay, but did as she was told. Closing her eyes and opening her mind, she felt... something? in the device. She reached towards it, and...

The roar of a small fireplace. The sound of windchimes. The smell of food on the stove.

It was a small cottage. It had no door to the outside, as Annerose discovered as she looked around, probably because there was no outside, given that the phone could only have so much electronics to store the mindscape. But it did have windows that looked out over what was probably a detailed copy of Alice's mindscape.

A home away from home.

Annerose couldn't wait to take Alice here.


End file.
